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Archiver > APG > 2003-04 > 1050046906


From: "hosborn" <>
Subject: RE: [APG] On-line research vs. traditional methods
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 08:41:46 +0100
In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20030410141623.020537f0@mail.winco.net>


Dear All

This is a very interesting discussion and one that has been exercising
the minds of archivists and others who are custodians of records since
the mid 90s and the expansion of the world wide web. As an (ex)
archivist from the UK, I can assure you that the archival community is
taking this very seriously indeed. It ties in with some fundamental
problems that archivist encounter to do with "access" and also
"preservation".

Digitization of the bulk of records of a National Archives is a long way
off - if it will ever be reached. We are talking about miles and miles
of records. Digitization of finding aids is however well under way. One
project in the UK is called Access to Archives or A2A for short and aims
to put catalogues from all the county record offices and other
repositories on line. They have made terrific progress. However, it is
only as good as the catalogue itself. If the catalogue has names
missing, so does the on-line version.

Some very heavily used records have been digitised fairly successfully,
eg the UK 1901 census project which is available to view both indexes to
the census and the census pages themselves (not transcripts but the
actual pages). This sort of project is very very expensive (21 or so
million people) - and the PRO are charging money per view. The index
has, however, all the problems that indexes normally have, eg
mistranscribed names and occupations. As long as one checks with the
original image that is not a problem.

There are a number of projects going on at the moment to provide on line
indexes to other UK records via the PRO and therefore funded by the
taxpayer. But, even archival institutions make mistakes with indexes
and transcriptions, that is why everything must be checked with the
original records, whether that is a reproduced image of a document on
line, or a photocopy or the actual physical document in front of your
nose. It is a moot point whether the taxpayer will be interested in
paying for projects of this type in the future or whether they have to
be pay per view or privately funded.

The digitization of records and then the disposal of the original where
the original has real historical value I hope is not going to happen in
well managed archives. The digital image, by that I mean a photograph
of the original placed on line, cannot provide the true "context" of the
record which is important to the study of diplomatics; that is, the type
of paper, parchment, ink, damage, rubbings out, etc.

However, where records are first produced in an electronic environment.
For example, as a document in Word, e-mails, websites, databases, etc,
then the advice now being given to the archival community is to keep the
record electronically. Problems of migration are being thrashed out,
but in the future we are going to see that for example the 2001 census
will have been preserved electronically and will only be accessible
electronically - whether that is by a computer as we know them is
anybody's guess. But, the methods of research with these electronic
records are going to be no different to now - you still want to know
that you are looking at the original, not something that has
subsequently been altered, or a transcript. The problem of how to
provide that "original" is one for the archives community.

Well, I could write a book on this topic, but I'll save you from any
more!

Helen Osborn



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